A Ukrainian serviceman jumps out of the boat onto the shore of the Dnipro river near Kherson, Ukraine, 15 October 2023.
Alex Babenko/AP Photo
A Ukrainian soldier described to the BBC problems they’re facing on a key part of the frontline. The soldier said Ukrainian forces are being reinforced by inexperienced conscripts. Ukraine recently established a foothold in Russian occupied territory on the bank of the Dnipro.
A Ukrainian soldier has told the BBC that soldiers sent to help defend recent Ukrainian advances on the Dnipro river are so inexperienced they can’t even swim.
The soldier, who the BBC did not name, provided a vivid account of the obstacles facing Ukrainian forces in defending their foothold on the Russian-occupied east bank of the Dnipro, in south Ukraine.
The advance has been hailed as a triumph by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and comes after weeks of stalemate in fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces near Kherson.
However, the soldier said that Ukrainian forces are experiencing serious shortages in equipment and reinforcements as they defend their positions, which are under relentless Russian attack.
“Several brigades were supposed to be posted here, not individual companies – we just don’t have enough men,” said the soldier.
“There are a lot of young guys among us. We need people, but trained people, not the green ones we have there now. There are guys who had spent just three weeks in training, and only managed to shoot a few times,” he said.
“Everyone who wanted to volunteer for war came a long time ago – it’s too hard now to tempt people with money. Now we’re getting those who didn’t manage to escape the draft. You’ll laugh at this, but some of our marines can’t even swim,” the soldier added.
As the war with Russia approaches its second year, Ukraine is experiencing serious manpower problems and concerns that international support for its resistance to the invasion may be beginning to fade.
In the wake of the invasion, thousands of Ukrainians enlisted in the military. But amid steep casualty figures, these figures are believed to have dropped. Ukraine does not publish recruitment and enlistment figures.
In a recent essay for The Economist, Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s supreme military commander, admitted troop shortages were hampering Ukraine’s campaign against Russia.
Russia has also experienced high casualty rates but has a population much larger than Ukraine’s and last year drafted around 300,000 civilians to fight in the military.